The Chelsea High School Hockey community is mourning the passing of former teammate and current assistant coach Drew Brown this week after a long battle with cancer. A stand-out player for the Bulldogs, Brown played for Chelsea from 2007 to 2009, and went on to play Division-I hockey with the Providence Friars.

To this day, Drew still holds multiple Chelsea hockey records for the Bulldogs, including single-season goals (57), points (92) and plus-minus rating (+56) in 2009, as well as most-career goals (92), most-career points (178), and highest-career plus-minus rating (108).

Drew was a junior at Providence College when he suffered an injury to his left leg during the 2014 Hockey East semifinal. After several weeks of ongoing pain, an MRI showed a tumor, which was then diagnosed as Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. The diagnosis caused Drew to miss the entire 2014-15 season with the Friars, but he became an inspiration for his teammates during their 2015 national championship run.

In 2015-16, Drew joined the Friars staff as an undergraduate student assistant coach, and was able to join his teammates on the ice for pre-game warmups on February 25, 2016, in a special moment at Schneider Arena.

"When I have players that want to advance in hockey, I always tell them a story about Drew," said Chelsea head coach Don Wright. "Drew set multiple records in his sophomore year with Chelsea, and when he and I had our end-of-the-year meeting about what to work on, I talked to him about working on his shot and becoming faster and stronger. Now, most players who had just set team records would have dismissed everything I was saying, but not Drew. He came back the next year better than ever, and set a whole new set of records. That was just Drew's character."

This past summer, Drew returned to Chelsea to become an assistant coach for the Bulldogs.

"I was so excited this year to have him back as a coach to witness how he could help young players," said Wright. "As great of a hockey player as he was, he was an even better young man. He was always positive, always hard-working, and always trying to do the right thing."

Drew will be deeply missed by all who came in contact with him and were able to share the love of the game with him. If you would like to donate to Drew's GoFundMe page to further support his family, please visit https://www.gofundme.com/dropping-the-mitts-for-drew-brown.

Drew is survived by his mother Sandy, father Duke, younger sister Nicole, and fiancée Michelle Danko.

Providence College Mourns the Passing of Drew Brown, 25